SPRINGFIELD (AP) — Gov. Bruce Rauner has suspended $4.5 million in social services and public health grants to narrow a $1.6 billion budget gap.
Included is $3 million for the Illinois Tobacco Quitline to help smokers drop the unhealthy habit. Another $780,000 will be saved by halting Brothers and Sisters United Against HIV/AIDS. That’s a marketing program begun a decade ago to address a trend of higher rates of HIV/AIDS among black communities.
Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly says the governor’s office worked with the Departments of Human Services and Public Health “to see which grants could be suspended and prioritized essential services.”
There’s another $250,000 cut to a program to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
In March, Rauner suspended an uncertain amount in parks and recreation grants.